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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 1: Koala Quandary on Kangaroo Island

There are too many koalas on Kangaroo Island, an island off the coast of Australia, and some of them might have to be killed, say local conservation experts--but apparently nobody wants to do the job.

Wildlife conservationists work to help animal populations, and their environments, thrive. Unfortunately, the koala population on Kangaroo Island has done so well that the environment is beginning to suffer. Koalas only eat eucalyptus leaves. Lately, the number of koalas has gotten to be so big--about 30,000 on the island--that they are eating almost all the leaves off the trees. Since leaves are crucial to photosynthesis, the process that plants use to convert sunlight into food, the trees are beginning to die off. Even if the trees don't die off, however, they can't produce enough food for all the animals. Other methods of controlling the population, like moving some of the animals to the mainland, have failed.

That leaves the conservationists and government officials in a quandary. Government officials admit that there are too many koalas, but fear tourists and animal rights activists will be angered if the koalas are culled. But environmental conservation experts say that, if things go on as they are, many of the animals will eventually starve to death anyway, after ruining the environment, so culling some of them now makes more sense.

For now, there are no plans to thin out the koala population. The government feels that culling the creatures will cause tourism to drop, which would damage the country's economy.

--Written by Nia Williams

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